PITTODRIE chief Stewart Milne told shareholders that Brown is aware the job is results-driven but admitted he'll speak to the Aberdeen boss in the new year.

ABERDEEN chairman Stewart Milne last night warned boss Craig Brown he has to prove he is worth a new deal at Pittodrie.

Brown has been in charge since December 2010 and his contract is up at the end of the season but Milne is in no rush to commit until he sees evidence of success.

The Dons’ impressive start to the season has faltered in recent weeks and three consecutive defeats have seen them slip to seventh in the table.

Milne, who addressed shareholders at the club’s AGM last night, said: “Everyone knows football is about results. You have to make progress and achieve results consistently.

“I think we have done that so far but things can change very quickly in football. No one knows that more than Craig.

“We have made progress this season. We have been a lot more consistent and the feedback is positive about the style of football being produced.

“They have delivered a lot more results than last season but there is a lot more to come.

“We will start discussions in the early part of the new year. We want to know what Craig’s thoughts and plans are and we will see what we are thinking.”

The Aberdeen AGM was a tame affair for a club almost £11million in debt. The team have shown signs of improvement on the park but behind the scenes there is plenty of concern.

The buzzword from the top table was progress – but it should have been uncertainty.

Uncertainty about the manager and even more about the new stadium.

The proposed £38m arena on the outskirts of town has hit the buffers after council bosses blocked the plans surrounding the new training facility at Cove.

Staying at Pittodrie is not an option. The Dons don’t have the £16m it would take as they need the cash from selling the ground for real estate to fund their move and eventually balance the books.

In the meantime Milne has wiped out £3.7m of debt at Pittodrie by transferring a long-term loan into preferential shares and a similar deal with investment group Aberdeen Asset Management knocked off another £2.25m.

Now vice-chairman George Yule has admitted he has stumped up more than £100,000 of his own cash to become the largest single shareholder behind Milne.

Yule only joined the board in June – but not as another sugar daddy. The president of the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce was snapped up as he is one of the most connected men in the Granite City business scene.

But even he felt the need to dig deep into his wallet to help ease the financial burden at Pittodrie.

First Rangers, then Hearts and Dunfermline, the Grim Reaper has been on a tour of Scotland but Milne was adamant his next stop won’t be Pittodrie.

He said: “Are we next? No. We have a clear plan for the next three years to reduce the debt burden.

“There has been a setback surrounding the stadium but we have been able to uncouple the business from the stadium for the next couple of years.

“If there are further delays it won’t affect the finances of the club. That has been important.

“The debt is at a higher level than we would like – but we are well down the line to getting banking facilities in place for the next three years and how we are going to deal with it.

“The aim is to substantially reduce it but we are well aware of the challenges we will face. There are going to be difficult years ahead but I think people appreciate the challenges in Scottish football.

“We are not going to solve anything by looking back or trying to blame people. The focus has to be on how we move forward.

“We feel confident we are as well positioned as any club in the current environment.”

Milne has spent 18 years as chairman and hasn’t exactly presided over a golden period. A League Cup in 1995 is the only bit of silverware to show for nearly two decades of toil.

The building tycoon has long insisted he would step aside if others with deep wallets fancied emptying them into a football club.

With no white knights on the horizon he has no intention of ditching the Dons and riding off into the sunset.

When asked if he had grown weary of the challenge, Milne joked: “Weary or wary? No. I know in the last few years the amount of time I’ve had to commit to the club is way beyond what I would have liked. George Yule has come in as vice-chairman to help chief executive Duncan Fraser and do some of the role I was having to fulfil. I have no intention of standing down any time soon.

“The job of chairman is a burden but I wouldn’t do it if it did not bring me fulfilment.”